It is often necessary to obtain an accurate weight of an animal. For example cattle, sheep and other animals of economic importance may require frequent weighing for herd management or breeding reasons.
For example, a farmer will typically wish to control feeding by maintaining proper growth rate charts on his animals. It is also beneficial to keep a chart on each animal as means for keeping track of health conditions and maturity. Consequently it is necessary to periodically weigh the animals. As another example, a substantial weight drop of a remotely recorded weight of a pregnant cow may indicate the animal has calved. The date of weight drop may be indicative of the calving date.
A weighing apparatus is typically comprised of a floating platform, under which one or more load cells are disposed. The animal is directed onto the platform, with the platform being urged downwardly on and compressing the load cells. The amount of compression is proportional to the weight of the animal therefore allowing a weight to be calculated.
It is a problem in the art that animals can take some time to train in the use of a weighing platform. For cattle, a period of around two weeks is typically required to train the animal to walk onto the platform and remain relatively stationary to allow an accurate weight to be obtained. Animals often hesitate to walk onto the platform, and must be lead or pushed on it. Even once on the platform, an animal may move constantly, thereby causing fluctuations in the weight recorded. Generally, a period of time passes before the animal calms down, and ceases moving such that the weight recording stabilizes.
Some prior art methods to facilitate an animal stepping onto the scale and settling rely on providing food to lure the animal into position
During the training period, significant operator time is taken in weighing animals, this leading to a loss in productivity in a commercial farming operation.
It is an aspect of the present invention to overcome a problem of the prior art to provide improved weighing apparatus and methods, or to at least provide a useful alternative to apparatus and methods of the prior art.
The discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles and the like is included in this specification solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all of these matters formed part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.